Spaghetti with Scallops

Sorry sister mine, your week has ended and my seafood recipes have been slowly piling up, I can’t help myself, I live next to the ocean though don’t even feel like I am eating enough fish.

I have been trying to block any longing for Italy, but the one thing that I do miss is the fish. Seems odd since Rome is further from salty water than Charleston, but finding fresh fish was easier and I got to look into their eyes when I chose them, something that in the land of the fillet, I can’t do. It is hard to tell how fresh the fish is, piled up in a glass case on ice, I can’t even bend over and sniff them. So I am doing this blindly and have been buying a lot less fish than I would like. Something my sister is probably happy about.

Scallops are a shellfish that you can’t find in Italy and since my husband is sadly allergic to shrimp, a fish I would eat everyday if it was possible, I want to find something that can go in place of the squid and the cuttlefish that we enjoyed so often in Rome. I need to make my rounds to the fish markets on the creeks to see what they have to offer, probably better than what you find in the grocery stores. Are there days of the week that are better, like in Italy? I am so used to the rules that this anarchy of food buying is starting to confuse me. Asparagus and green beans in February?

Spaghetti with Scallops in Tomato Sauce

½ pound of sea scallops (bay scallops will also do, thought they are much smaller)

1 cup of fresh cherry tomatoes, quartered (though I would used canned after reading an article in Gourmet about tomato pickers in Florida and modern-day slavery)

3½ tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, left whole

1/2 lb of spaghetti (not spaghetti rigati, we made the mistake of buying them and they are gross)

1 handful parsley, chopped

Salt & pepper to taste

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat with about ½ a tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and add 2 cloves of garlic. When the garlic starts to sizzle add the scallops to sear them, 1 or 2 minutes for each side, or until brown.

In a separate pan, heat the remaining 3 tbsp of olive oil and the remaining clove of garlic, when the garlic starts to sizzle add tomatoes. Bring to a rapid simmer and lower the heat. Add water as needed to keep the sauce liquid. Once the scallops are well seared add them to the tomato sauce.

In the meantime, fill a large pot with water for the pasta. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once the water starts to boil for the pasta add a small handful of salt to the water and bring to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. When the pasta is perfectly al dente, turn up the heat on the sauce and drain the pasta. Without shaking all of the water out of the colander pour the spaghetti into the pan and toss it with the sauce. This allows for the pasta to cook a little longer in the sauce and to absorb the flavor.

Off of the heat toss the chopped parsley into the pasta and serve immediately.

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One Response to “Spaghetti with Scallops”

Try Simmon’s Seafood on the Isle of Palms — my mom has always gotten our seafood there, before they were just before the bridge going to sullivan’s, and they moved to the IOP last year, but it’s the same people. Also the seafood place right there on shem creek, on the Charleston side, is super fresh as well.